The Book of Birth Poetry: An Eloquent and Ebullient Celebration of the Miracle of Life - Softcover

Otten, Charlotte

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553374494 ISBN 13: 9780553374490

Publisher: Bantam, 1995

About this title

From Library Journal:

Billed as a celebration of the miracle of life, this anthology addresses almost every aspect of the topic, from the refusal to bear children to the agonizing eagerness of the labor room, from wanting a baby to the discovery that one's newborn has Down Syndrome. Poems by Louise Gluck, Sharon Olds, John Berryman, Elizabeth Jennings, Seamus Heaney, and others are arranged by such subjects as dreams and fears of pregnancy, birthing, male participation, and abortion. Particularly noteworthy are Linda Pastan's deflationary "Notes from the Delivery Room," in which "this work, this forcing/of one life from another/is something that I signed for/at a moment when I would have signed for anything"; and James Merrill's "A Timepiece," a brief portrait of his pregnant sister that becomes a heart-breaking meditation on mortality. Others-particularly those about the bliss and mystery of "the sacred condition"-may lose the audience. Perhaps not for every reader but bound to attract those with a compelling personal interest in the subject.
Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine Law Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0553374494
• ISBN 13: 9780553374490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 259